Dreadnought!
(Fortunes of War reprint) | Pages = 252 | Year = 2270 | ISBN = 0671618733 ISBN 0671038524 (Fortunes of War reprint) }} The Federation's ultimate war machine — captured by terrorists. Summary ;From the book jacket: :Star Empire ''is the Federation's most powerful new weapon -- a dreadnought, first in a class of super-starships -- capable of outgunning a dozen Klingon cruisers, or subduing a galaxy. :On the eve of her maiden voyage, ''Star Empire is stolen by terrorists who demand a rendezvous with the Starship ''Enterprise'' -- and with Lieutenant Piper, stationed aboard James Kirk's ship on her first training cruise. Now Piper must discover why her friends from Starfleet are among the terrorists... and why they insist the ship was stolen not to attack the Federation -- but to save it!'' A prototype starship is stolen by a conspiracy of Starfleet officers who are old friends of a new young Lieutenant named Piper who was recently posted to the Enterprise. An Admiral insists on taking his personal flagship and accompanying the Enterprise to apprehend the stolen starship, where it turns out that the new starship was stolen not to start a war, but to prevent one. The crew of the Enterprise and the hijackers must work together to foil a plot by the Admiral to use this new ship to begin a military coup of the Federation. The story is told from the point of view of a young Ms. Piper, a Cadet at Starfleet Academy, undergoing her Kobayashi Maru examination (she almost succeeds, by crashing the simulator's computers while trying to improvise an engineering solution to the problem). Upon graduation she is requested by James T. Kirk for posting as a Lieutenant to the . Also posted onboard a couple of weeks prior is a former friend of hers, a Vulcan named Sarda. The USS Star Empire, the prototype of the new Dreadnought Starships is stolen by a group of rogue officers lead by Commander Paul Burch, former assistant to Admiral Rittenhouse, who had commissioned the dreadnought and had her built in secret. Kirk requested Lieutenant Piper to be assigned to the Enterprise as they had already received a communique from the terrorists detailing a time and location for a meeting, and that a further message would require Piper's biocode to open. Lieutenant Piper is unaware of how she fits into any of this. At the requested meeting place and time, Piper is summoned to the bridge to decode the transmission. Much to her surprise one of the terrorists turns out to be Brian Sylania, her former lover whom she departed with just prior to accepting her assignment onboard the Enterprise. The terrorists onboard request a party consisting of no more than 3 members, consisting of Piper, at least one Vulcan, and one other member. Kirk denies the request and has Piper, while still in visible contact with the terrorists, arrested for conspiracy as an act to prompt more action from them. After the transmission is cut, Kirk orders her confined to her quarters, under computer guard. Determined to find out what Brian's involvement is in all of this, and figuring Kirk was smart enough to not only to realize what she would try, but was actually expecting it, she bypasses the computer guard on her room, and escapes to a seldom-used transporter room. While programming a new destination she is surprised by Sarda, her former Vulcan friend. When asked how did he know what she was doing, he states that logic dictated this is what she would do. In a surprising move, given their rocky past, he offers her help in the form of a parka, a communicator, a phaser and himself. They decide to take an Arco-class sled instead, and barely make it out before the shuttlebay doors close them in. While enroute to the USS Star Empire they are stopped by Vice Admiral Vaughn Rittenhouse's personal flagship, the Saladin class destroyer Pompeii. They are stopped by the ship's tractor beam and escorted by security to meet the Vice Admiral. Rittenhouse apologizes about their abrupt tractoring, but explains that no contact must be allowed between anyone and the Star Empire yet. While present Piper and Sarda witness a communication with Kirk in which Rittenhouse tries to dismiss Kirk from the area. An order Kirk denies as the terrorists had specifically requested Kirk and the Enterprise. Becoming suspicious of the Vice Admiral, Piper uses their time alone after the transmission to probe the computer for more information on the Vice Admiral's career. She finds out that he has many powerful connections and sits in most of the most powerful branches of Starfleet, and has apparantly gotten several Captains their ships. The same Captains and the same ships that are now conviently headed their way. After reviewing all the information from the computer, from the feelings she has picked up, and from her knowledge of the past, she realizes Rittenhouse had the dreadnaught built not as a peace-keeping ship, but as a ship to subjugate the galaxy under his will, using the banner of the "greater good." He intends to lead a military coup against the Federation with an entire line of dreadnaughts, and to subjucate every species that resists, including the Klingons and the Romulans. Attempting to contact Captain Kirk to warn him about the situation, Piper and Sarda are interrupted by Rittenhouse who had been listening in on the entire conversation. Piper and Sarda confront Rittenhouse about his plan, which he openly admits. In his eyes the galaxy would be a better place under one rule. His rule. He has both of them thrown into the brig. After escaping the brig, Sarda contacts two of their friends onboard the Enterprise, who covertly beam to their location. Sarda has asked them to be ready to do such before he left, unbeknownst to Piper. Escaping the Pompeii Piper and her friends manage to get onboard the Star Empire and are told what they suspected already, the theft of the dreadnaught was not to start a war but to prevent one. Captain Kirk, having already figured out Rittenhouse's motives, helps to defend the Star Empire from the now-attacking four ships, comprised of the Pompeii and the three other ships enroute earlier. Realizing his plan is now utterly gone, Rittenhouse sets on at least killing those onboard the Star Empire. The Enterprise and Star Empire work together to defeat the Pompeii. After returning to Earth Kirk tells Piper he will recommend the decommissioning and scrapping of the dreadnaught. Background Information * This is Diane Carey's first Star Trek novel published by Pocket Books. * Many of Carey's original characters and concepts were reused in her later Trek novels, beginning with the sequel Battlestations!. When Pocket Books reissued Dreadnought! and Battlestations! in , they made them part of a series called Fortunes of War. * Author Diane Carey made extensive use of the Star Fleet Technical Manual when writing this novel. Besides the use of the titular three-nacelled dreadnought type ship, the organization of the Federation and Starfleet infrastructure revealed to Piper by the library computer is identical to the layout written by Franz Joseph in that manual. She also mentions several Federation starships and starship classes from that work, such as the of destroyer. Even major characters Piper, "Scanner" Sandage, Vaughan Rittenhouse, Sukaru Tutakai and Sarda were named for transport/tugs USS Piper, USS Sandage, USS Rittenhouse and the ''Constitution''-variant subclass vessels USS Tutakai and (probably) USS Sardar. Carey also misspells Potemkin as Potempkin, as Franz Joseph did in the earlier manual. * The illustrations of the Arco and Tycho "sleds" (small shuttlepod/fighters) were designed by Brian Thomas and illustrated by C. Paul. Interior art makes this book a rarity; no other Pocket Books Star Trek novels to date - other than Battlestations! and the young adult series (such as Star Trek: The Next Generation - Starfleet Academy) - have featured interior artwork. * Even though the information about the dreadnought's configuration was derived from the aforementioned Technical Manual, the design of the ship was quite different. Vallejo's rendering depicts the ship with more advanced detailing similar to the later starships. * Sequels for this series were discussed in the issue of Starlog magazine (#159) when Carey was interviewed by Wanda J. Hall. A sequel called By Logic Alone would star Piper, and a follow-on two-parter focused on Kirk, but featuring Piper, would be called The Federation Mutiny. The novels were apparently never produced. * Cover painter Boris Vallejo reportedly had Diane Carey and collaborator Greg Brodeur pose for the likenesses of Piper and Sarda. * The events of this novel, of a Starfleet vice-admiral trying to start a military coup of the Federation, are similar to a later DS9 storyline in and . * The character of Piper is regarded among many fans as a "Mary Sue". * In Pocket TOS: The Lost Years, this story is referenced as Admiral Nogura describes the general Federation public's wariness of a protective Starfleet torn apart by a corruption scandal. Nogura offers it as one of his main reasons for promoting Kirk to rear admiral. He reasons a famous and respected starship captain promoted to the admiralty to replace Rittenhouse will help restore public confidence in Starfleet. Technical information * The Star Empire is unique in that its third nacelle is not mounted on the 'body' of the craft but is instead attached to the saucer/neck section. The apparent addition of an extra nacelle had the effect of allowing the vessel to make twice the maximum speed of the Enterprise while only being able to hold it for a limited period of time. * The novel goes on to state the Star Empire featured triple shielding and was about two or three times larger than the Enterprise. In theory, this would make it nearly 1.5 million tons lighter then the later . The armament on the vessel was stated to be five phaser banks (two emitters each), six photon torpedo launchers and a number of unmentioned state of the art weapons systems. Characters Regular and recurring ;James T. Kirk : Captain. ;Piper : Lieutenant. ::See Piper for characters with similar names. ; Vaughn Rittenhouse : Vice Admiral ; Sarda ; Merete AndrusTaurus ; Judd "Scanner" Sandage ; Paul Burch ; Spock ; Leonard H. McCoy ; Montgomery Scott ; Uhura ; Hikaru Sulu Other ; Adeb ben Abdullah : Commander. ; Ran Armstrong : Admiral, former captain of the [[USS Constellation (NCC-1974)|USS Constellation]]. By 2270 he was the Starfleet Representative to the UFP Congress. ; Samuel Boma: a former officer, now a civilian scientist critical to the Dreadnought program. ; Elizabeth Connolly : Commander. ; Chirita Dur Tahr : Commander. ; Irene Fogel-Malone : Commander. ; Stephen Leedson : Captain of USS Hornet. ; Roy Nash : Captain of USS Lincoln given temporary promotion to commodore by Rittenhouse. ; Lu Sing Quaid : Commander, chairman of the Starship Officer Selection Committee and also a member of the Logistical Support Committee at Starfleet Command. ; Niditoricumtu Ro : Captain. ; Stav : Chief adjutant. ; Nigel Swenson : Federation underscretary for the interior. ; Sukaru Tutakai : Captain of [[USS Potemkin (NCC-1657)|USS Potempkin]]. ; Susan Yin : Commander, a first officer of one of the ships that arrived to support Rittenhouse's coup. References ; Arco-class : Type of attack sled. ; Dante : Workbee on the USS Enterprise. ; Grey Matter : Workbee on the Enterprise. ; Honey Bun : Arco-class. ; [[USS Hornet|USS Hornet]] : Captain Leedson. ; USS Liberty : Starship simulated in Piper's Kobayashi Maru test. ; USS Lincoln : Captain Nash. ; [[USS Magellan|USS Magellan]] : A "Galaxy" ship, commanded by Captain Flynn. ::This vessel was also referred to in the novelizations of Star Trek II and Star Trek III. In Star Trek II's book, this ship was caled USS ''Magellanic Clouds. ; Perceptive : Textile freighter decimated by space pirates. ; Polliwog : Tycho-class one-man light interceptor fighter. ; USS Pompeii (NCC-424) : Saladin class MT-1 destroyer destroyed by Rittenhouse's order. ; [[USS Potemkin (NCC-1657)|USS Potempkin]] : Captain Tutakai. ; Prodigy : Workbee. ; Rock Slide : Arco sled. ; Runamuk : Arco sled. ; USS Star Empire (MKC-2331) : Mk-X class I Federation dreadnought. ; Stocking Cap : Arco sled. ; Tycho-class : Type of interceptor fighter. ; Wooden Shoe : Arco sled commandeered by Lieutenant Piper. ; Zipper Fly : Arco sled. Timeline ;Stardate 7881.2 (2253) : A roster of Vulcan training and education techniques is supplied to the Federation by emissaries from Earth: By 2270 this is still the last information supplied on the topic. ::Seventeen years before the novel. ;Stardate 8180.2 (2266) : Piper enters Starfleet Academy. ;2268 : VADM Rittenhouse orders the construction to begin on Star Empire. ;2270 External links * * Star Empire blueprints Category:Novels de:Das Schlachtschiff